1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a brass material and a process for the preparation thereof.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
From German Published Patent Specification No. 12 28 810 there has already become known a process for the preparation of materials, in this instance spring materials, which are constituted of copper-zinc alloys. In this process, a semi-finished material produced from a copper-zinc alloy in a method commonly employed for malleable alloys is annealed, cold worked and then subjected to a temperature and time-measured heat treatment. Hereby, the treatment is regulated so that there will be avoided a recrystallization of the material matrix.
The spring materials which are obtained in this manner evidence an increased, extensively isotropic spring flexural limit. However, in general, this known process need not improve the mechanical properties of commercial brass alloys to a considerable extent so as to render them applicable for the increased demands thereon. Finally, this is not only documented by the fact that such alloys, in an increasing measure, must be replaced by materials which are expensive and difficult to machine or process. Moreover, the usual commercial brass alloys are unsuitable for further processing through a superplastic deformation.
The preparation process which has become known from the above-mentioned patent publication, which does not in any way provide for a material suitable for a superplastic deformation, additionally requires an extremely precise maintenance of the temperature as well as of the time period for the heat treatment. Thus, even small deviations from the predetermined annealing temperature lead to an undesirable reduction in the mechanical properties of the material.
As a consequence, above all also due to the good electrical conductivity of the brass, there is thus present a great interest in a simply and inexpensively producible brass material which, in contrast with the traditional brass alloys, evidences a substantially improved deformability as well as occasionally considerably improved mechanical properties.